HMC Physics Colloquium

Tuesdays at 16:30 in Shanahan Center for Teaching and Learning, Room B460

Jason Gallicchio

University of Chicago

A Long Winter: Cosmic Microwave Background Polarization with the South Pole Telescope

March 3, 2015

The South Pole Telescope is the largest Cosmic Microwave Background telescope in the world. Its high-resolution maps were the first to show evidence of so-called B-mode polarization due to gravitational lensing by intervening matter. Wider maps are now shedding light on the larger-sized B-modes generated by gravity waves created a right after the big bang. I will discuss the technology involved, how our measurements relate to the BICEP2 Planck results, and what it was like to spend nine dark months at the South Pole with the same 43 people, knowing there was no way in or out.